1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for analyzing a biochemical reaction.
2. Description of the Related Art
Analysis has recently been performed on the genes of many creatures including human beings and many plants including rice. In the recent years, there has been developed an examination method using a DNA chip or a DNA microarray having DNAs regularly arrayed on a semiconductor or the like. This examination method can simultaneously examine a plurality of genes. This examination method is introduced as a conventional technique that uses a three-dimensional array and detects it in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2002-350446. This reference discloses a biochemical examination method that can simultaneously detect light intensities corresponding to the respective probe array elements with a practically large dynamic range by using an area sensor or a line sensor having a general dynamic range.
Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2002-350446 discloses a method of allowing an examiner to switch ND filters and place a desired ND filter on an observation optical path as one of the biochemical examination methods that can simultaneously detect the light intensities corresponding to the respective probe array elements with the practically large dynamic range by using the area sensor or the line sensor having the general dynamic range.
Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2002-350446 also discloses a method of changing the light requirement of fluorescence by changing the accumulation time of the CCD in a CCD camera as another biochemical examination method. For example, this method sequentially increases the accumulation time (t0, 2t0, 4t0, . . . , 2n-1t0 (n=1, 2, . . . )) at a predetermined ratio, captures fluorescent images of the biochemical examination array, and sends each fluorescent image as a target image to an image processing unit immediately before the CCD is saturated.
In addition, with regard to a method of determining the maximum accumulation time of a CCD, Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2002-350446 discloses a method of determining the maximum value of the accumulation time in accordance with the condition that the light requirement of light corresponding to the minimum emission intensity of array element areas in a biochemical examination array falls within the linear area of the output characteristics of an array type detector.